Always Start With Your Existing System

Are you in a position of implementing any of the management systems whether it’s for OH&S, environment, or quality? If you’re an existing business, you will already have processes in place.

Have you been told that you need to build a completely new system?

Has a consultant come along and said “Oh no, no, no, that's no good”? “You need to start from scratch”. Is that you?

Well, I want to say stop. Just stop.

The best place to start is to look at what you already have in place and then you build from there.

I'm going up this path because we currently have available on our Free Resources page what we’ve called Build Your Business Helper. When you Sign Up you will be sent the ATOL Business Helper spreadsheet.

In this spreadsheet, you can take note of your existing procedures and map them across all of the requirements of the three key standards of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001. You can map your processes against just one of these, two or all three as an integrated management system.

Once you’ve completed this it will help you to identify the gaps as that's all you're looking for. You don't need to create or recreate this massive system on top of what you already have.

There are too many consultants out there that come along and give you this one size fits all system and basically overrides what you already do. That's not the way it should be done.

So, the steps to follow are:

Step 1 

Look at your existing processes and document them on the Build Your Business Helper spreadsheet

Step 2 

Map your existing processes against the requirements of the standard/s that you're wanting to create your system against.

Step 3 

Identify the gaps and this is where your focus goes.

You might identify complete gaps in certain sections that need to be filled in their entirety. Or you might find that there are just small areas that need to be tweaked a little bit. That's what I normally see with existing business is that you already have the majority of the processes and the systems in place. You just have to tweak things a little bit.

Normally the key thing is formalizing especially in small businesses as you’re already meeting a lot of the requirements however, they will be conducted informally. It’s just a matter of creating the evidence.

If there's one thing that you do for yourself and your business today, sign up to receive this spreadsheet and start mapping out your existing system.

As always if you have any questions please comment and we are only too happy to help.

Have fun and enjoy the process.